The first web browsers included a window for displaying the contents of a web document framed by an area with user interface controls for, e.g., back and forward navigation, reloading and returning to a defined “home page,” opening locally stored files, entering a web address or uniform resource locator (URL), and printing a document. Over the years some additional functionality has been added; the most important development has probably been the introduction of tabbed browsing, which introduced the ability to open several documents inside one browser window and use tabs for switching between documents.
An advantage with tabs is that a user can quickly switch between web documents without having to navigate or reload information. Furthermore, state information (such as scroll position and text entered in forms) is maintained in each tab and not lost when the user switches to a different tab.
However, the traditional user interface controls described above are rigid and do not give web applications full control over the user interface. For instance, many web applications can give unexpected or inefficient results when using back navigation. Particularly, if the page navigated back to was one that automatically forwarded the browser to the page the user attempted to navigate back from, the browser will go back and forth between the same two pages each time the user clicks on the “back” button. As a result of this, many “native” applications, particularly on mobile platforms such as the Android™ operating system provided by Google and the iOS operating system provided by Apple, are simply web applications presented through a web browser without user interface controls (a so-called “chromeless” browser).
There are also disadvantages with the browser tabs. They are manually created and deleted by users. Because managing them requires time and an effort, they are typically not used effectively. It is common for users to have several tabs open of the same page, leading to confusion and wasted computer resources. Also, users tend to accumulate more and more tabs over time because they do not want to close potentially important documents; and the more tabs that are added, the more time it takes to find a particular tab. The situation is often made even worse by the fact that browsers show tabs and webpages simultaneously in a limited amount of screen space.
Browser developers have tried to compensate for these limitations in various ways. Some browsers include a visual overview of the tabs, where users can manually switch to a view providing, for example, thumbnail presentations of the content in each tab. Other browsers close all tabs when the browser is closed, and start with only one tab when the browser is restarted, causing information to be lost between browsing sessions. Certain browser extensions also exist, for example, to find tabs with duplicate content.
The situation, however, is still one where users must manually maintain information if they want to keep it and not lose control, or they must accept the loss of information between browsing sessions. The situation clearly is one where improvement is needed.